Already have a working title and a premise: "The Fourth Ring". In which The World's Only Big Top One Hundred Per Cent Gen-yoo-wine Four! Ring! Circus! Comes to town.

And only the sulky kid figures out what the fourth ring is, and sneaks out before the Big Bang.

One clown for each ring. Evil.

Susan, I've read more than enough Regencies to know the basics, and I haven't read the earlier version of your novel. A Word attachment to my profile address is fine, if you want to send it my way.

I have got to buy a copy of that anthology for my BIL with the huge clown phobia.

I'm never tired of saying how much fun it is to catch up in here - I never skip in this thread. And usually I also try to read one drabble at a time, before reading responses to them and going on to the following one. Just lovely.

victor, what is the link to the story? I'm crazy behind with Deena's file, it's always open on my screen, I just never seem to get to it (bad beta, bad!). Maybe if I know I have something else to look at, I'll be faster with what I already have.

Susan, sorry, practically zero knowledge about these kinds of books, so I don't think I can be of any help.

Okay, this is off-topic a wee bit, but it seems more correct to put it here than anywhere else.

My sister is kind of a poet. She wrote this poem, and just won $150 with it, so I'm gonna post it for you folkses to read.

Valentine's Day
By Allison Griswold

valentine's day
makes my heart

fidget

like a toddler in church
whose teeth ache.

My teeth ache.

Chipped
from apples I force-feed
perchance just one possesses that
fairy-tale potency--

a VIP pass
to the very front of the interminable line
to sit, and be--
thrilled.

a death wish I make
perchance I wake (though eyes closed) under glass,
to the scent of red roses.

I'll hear blue birds
and seven short guys standing around
they'll gawk

and fidget

like toddlers
fidget in church,

like my heart
fidgets on valentines day

waiting for a prince.

the noble heritage of Killer Klowns From Outer Space.

That's such a great movie. I watched it so many times when I was younger.

Congratulations to your sister, NovaChild. Winning money for writing is always cool. I got a taste of it last year. Now I just have to find someone who'll, you know, publish it.

NC, your sister doesn't live in CT, does she?

The world couldn't be that small, could it?

The world couldn't be that small, could it?

Invisible Green is the brother of a girl I was friends with at Rice, so the answer is yes.

That's a superb poem.

(waking up slowly here)

The link to the Clown Anthology will not work for me. I weep. I really must have a copy. Pennywise was one of the most visually frightening villians ever IMHO. "Can't sleep - clown'll eat me!"

I'm three pages in, and moving along.

Can I get a couple of betas shortly?